


Dead Eye

by phantomchajo



Series: SilverHawks: Beta-Verse [6]
Category: SilverHawks
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomchajo/pseuds/phantomchajo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bit of foul play goes on when Moonstryker plays instructor on the holo-range</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead Eye

**Author's Note:**

> This entire series was written as an RP on a message board I created, so when you see '~~' it means a change in writers.

 'Dead Eye',

 

'He was ready.  The target program was up and running and he had his fully loaded laser rifle in hand.  Whne the shooting range door hissed open he walked in with confidence and readied himslef for the simulation.

The moment the door shut he heard the voice of his trainer over his com link.

"All right, Cadet Fasir.  I've seen you're a mean shot with a laser rifle.  Now let's see how you do...in zero-g's..."

Keedra could almost hear the wicked grin he knew was forming on his trainer's face as gravity lost its hold on his body.

'By the gods, the rumors about this human may be true," the Martian mused as he struggle to control his limbs.  'This Moonstryker may very well be what humans call... an asshole.'  In the back of his mind he hoped Wolfstorm didn't see him like this.  If she did he knew the teasing would go on for at least a week.

He cursed when the targetting system registered a hit.  One of his 'enemies' had clipped him in what would soon be his shoulder jet.  Not only had he lost control of his body, he now had to aim with one arm.  The stoic Martian didn't lose hope.  He wasn't one to give up easily.  In the meantime, his trainer crossed his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes.

"You know, you're going to be doing battle in either low-g or zero-g situations so you'd better get the hang of this quick before you fail.  You don't want that to happen do you?"

Keedra silently wished the human would be quiet while he tried to figure out how to gain control of his body.  He had one working arm left in the simulation, so things were going to be tricky.

~~

''Looks like I'm going to have to rely on the laws of physics,'  he thought as his body drifted towards an obstacle.  In all the confusion he had managed to hit one of his 'opponents' and decided to make use of the debris.  Using his simulated heel jets he positioned himself so that his damaged arm was in line with a piece of debris.  He couldn't use it to aim with but he could move it just enough to push against the debris to move in the opposite direction.  'Now I'm getting somewhere,' he thought as he gained control and picked off as many of the drones as he could.  Just as he was about to destroy the last target drone  the simulation ended and he fell to the floor with a thud.

"Sorry, time's up!"  Moonstryker's voice chirped over the COM.  Now Fasir was a reasonable guy for the most part, but at that moment he wanted to do something most unreasonable to his trainer's person.  Just as he felt as if his blood would litterally boil over he got a flash of something.  He saw the human female, the one called Wolfstorm, yelling at his trainer and him looking as if he was backed into a corner by a ferocious beast.  Keedra smiled to himself as he got up from the floor.  He just knew he had to hang around and see this vision come to pass.

~~

Zan sat in the ready room waiting on her turn in the Sim. She was not in a good mood about having to take this training, on the simple fact she was a pilot, not a grunt. She didn’t see why she had to do this and had argued for a good day about it, balking then entire time. But it had done her no good, so here she was.

After enough time to brood and work up her temper, the trainer finally swaggered out of the control room. “Alright, who’s the next lucky person I get to play with?” He asked eyeing the cadets in the room. His eyes fell on Zan and his grin broadened into a leer. “Well hello there…”

Zan sneered at him, a low growl emanating from the back of her throat. “Let’s just get this shit over with,” standing up and stalking past MoonStryker towards the Range/Sim entrance.

“Wo-hoo.. feisty ain’t ya?” he continued to grin suggestively at her. “I like that in a woman.” He took the riffle Keedra had been using and re-loaded it with a freshly charged laser pack then tossed it to Zan. “Here ya go babe. You might need this.”

Zan turned and caught the riffle reflexively, then growled again at him then turned back to the door. On her way in she felt his hand on her ass before he shoved her into the room and the door sealed behind her. If it hadn’t closed, she would have shoved the riffle up his ass for touching her. Turning back around with a snarl, she stalked to her place.

MoonStryker was enjoying himself today. Not only had he taken out a possible competitor for the title of best marksman at the academy, he was getting to play with a feisty woman that was considered dangerous by everyone there. Sitting back down at the controls, he brought the system back up. “Alright sweet cheeks, let’s see what you can do,” He said over the com before activating the program.

In the Sim/Range, the gravity suddenly decreased to zero as a star-field appeared around her. Obstacles floated haphazardly around the place as Sim-armor encased her body. It was one of the most unwanted and uncomfortable feelings she had encountered in a long while. It felt tight in all the wrong places, clingy and suffocating. As one part of her mind was trying to deal with the emotions and faint remembrances, the other part was kicking into high gear.

The AI started tracking and targeting everything within range. Functioning like it was designed, it categorized objects into several classifications. Non-threat, Low-threat, Moderate-Threat and High-threat.

Before Zan had an inkling of what was going on, she had brought the riffle up and was firing at incoming objects, her Sim-armor’s jets activating, sending her where she needed to go. This was one of the rare times she did not fight the AI’s taking control of the situation.

~~

Keedra sat in the waiting room with the others.  He wasn't his usual calm self because Moonstryker had upset him.  He wanted to warn the others about what to expect, but one of the rules of the SIM test is that you can't tell the oes after you what it's like.  They just had to be prepared for anything.  Or at least try to.  Kee lifted his head when he heard someone address him.

"Hey Fasir, you don't look to happy over there.  Anything wrong?"  Aurora inquired.

"Well, I just don't like all of this waiting.  I mean why do we have to wait for everyone to get finished to get our score?  Is he trying to humilate us or something?

~~

For the first 3 minutes everything was fine.. sort of. She hit ever target she was given within seconds of it becoming said target. After that 3 minutes her shots started missing. She was hitting objects that were suppose to be non-hostile and the hostile targets were closing in on her. When the first hit happened and the section of ‘armor’ shut down restricting her movement, she went nuts and started really fighting her situation.

“What the..?” MoonStryker said as he stood up from his seat, staring at the vids. Not only was this one shooting at the targets, but at everything else around her! Checking the monitor he noted she had enough hits against her to take her out of the picture if she was in a real fight. “Time’s up!” he called out slapping the Sim Shutdown on his way out of the control room. In the waiting room, he jerked his finger at the door to the Sim/Range. “Is it me or was that normal for Psycho Chick in there?” raising an eyebrow.

In the Sim/Range, the hard impact with the floor jarred Zan back to a semblance of her normal self. Very angry and ready to beat the person responsible to a bloody pulp. To hell with shooting him. It’d be too damned quick and painless in her mind. Crouching slightly, she waited till the door opened then charged, riffle held like a club.

“Duck and Cover!” someone yelled as those who knew the Captain made for cover. If you were out of her sight, then usually you were out of her mind when it came to the receiving end of her anger.

Zan took a swing on her way past MoonStryker then slid to a stop and turned. She was focused on him, eyes a silvery-blue-gray and a snarl on her face. She kept swinging the riffle turned club, forcing MoonStryker to back peddle, duck, weave and in general try to stay out of range of the weapon. He didn’t know she was forcing him back into a corner.

~~

While everyone else continued to take cover, Keedra decided to take a peek at what was going on.  Sure enough, Moonstryker was backed into a corner by the Captain, who was practically snarling at the man.  Keedra stiffled a snicker as Alex gave him a questioning look.

"Watch this, Geist.  She's going to turn as red as the Martian sands in about three seconds."

~~

“Humiliate us?” Alex asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against a wall, watching Wolfstorm spinning like a top, shooting anything and everything, her eyes’ wide as saucers.  He found it odd, she was flying and shooting like he’d never seen before, yet her face was a mask of fear, she seemed completely unaware of what she was doing. That’s not normal, he thought to himself.

Campus scuttlebutt had it that Wolfstorm was a former black-ops agent and that her head was full of cybernetic implants.  But the rumor mill also said that she was honest-to-god raised by wolves, and that she had been found by Army Rangers running naked through the Alaskan wilderness with a wolf pack.  Alex didn’t put much stock to put into either story, though felt that the second would explain a lot.

“Right, because the Academy as noting better to do than make us feel bad about ourselves.”

Keedra frowned.  “Well...I don’t think... But...” The Martian fumbled over his words as his brow creased in frustration, his skin beginning to glow in what Alex had learned was the equivalent of a human blush, a signal of embarrassment.

“It’s not a competition, don’t treat it as such.”

“Easy for you to say,” Keedra grumbled, his chin propped in his hands, his elbows propped on his knees.  “You’re good at this kind of thing.”

“And your test scores routinely put mine to shame, what’s your point?”

Keedra glanced up at him, but didn’t answer as they resumed watching Zan go crazy.  She flew like nothing he’d ever seen, spinning and zipping about the holographic battlefield, her rifle, firing so fast it was as if she had one continuous beam of red, emitting from the barrel.  A line of energy the stretched and flexed hitting nearly everything, not a single bolt going astray, even though a great deal of targets were not meant to be hit.  That would hurt her score.

Even the trainer(who didn’t strike Alex as particularly astute) seemed to sense that not everything was kosher, as he immediately shut down the sim, and ran out of the control room.  “Is it me or was that normal for psycho chick in there?”

Alex winced and groaned inwardly, this wasn’t going to end well.

The Silverhawk opened the door to the sim, and Zan came out, swinging her rifle like a club.  Someone yelled as MoonStryker deftly avoided the clumsy swing and began backpedaling, dodging the enraged Captain’s swings.

Keedra though it all great fun, an uncharacteristically evil smile beaming across his features, “Watch this, Geist,” he said.  “She’s going to turn as red as the Martian sands in about three seconds.”

“Yeah, and get her fool self expelled.  Scheisse!  What is her problem?”  He growled as he pushed himself off the wall.  He uncrossed his arms and approached the pair.  He dodged the Captain’s back swing and grabbed the rifle yanking out of her hands before coming up behind her.  He quickly brought his own arms up under the Captain’s outstretched ones, locking his elbows down around her arms, and clamping his hands down on the back of her neck, before leaning back, forcing her off her feet.

She struggled and cursed, spat and kicked, but she was effectively restrained and MoonStryker quickly scampered away as Aurora rushed out of the control room.'

~~

'"You moron!" Aurora shouted, stalking into the waiting room.  "If you want to get your rocks off, find a dirty magazine and an empty room, and keep your damned hands off other's asses!"

"I...She...But...I didn't DO anything!"

"Ass," she spat, rolling her eyes.  "Next time you grope a woman, make sure there's not another woman in the room to witness it.  Or better yet, cut your hands off and spare us the trouble."  She stormed past the gaping soldier to the corner where Alex held Zan pinned, her feet swinging madly in the air.

"Zan, stop it!" she demanded, and the frantic pinwheeling of Zan's feet slowed, but every inch of her frame still radiated tension.  "Let her down a little, Alex.  I need to see her eyes."

Geist studied Aurora for a long moment, then let Zan slide down a little, readjusting his grip.

"I saw it," Aurora said.  "I know, and it was wrong, but you can't go around attacking people like that.  Now we've got a real mess on our hands, and if you want to so much as see the inside of Yukikaze again, you'll let me handle it."

Leaving Zan, she marched over to MoonStryker.  "We have a bit of a situation here, you and I.  Zan did get a bit out of hand, even for her, but you must admit that your own behavior wasn't anything to cheer about either.  Now, we can all go running to the General and let him sort it all out, but no one will come out of that well.  Or you can go back into your little room and do your job, and we can all agree that nothing happened here beyond a little bout of high spirits.  But if you force the issue, I can guartentee that I can turn up several female cadets who felt pressured and humiliated by you.  People tend to talk to me, and there isn't much I don't remember.  So do yourself a favor and keep out of my way and everything will be just fine.  I'm making myself clear, I hope?"

MoonStryker looked from here to Zan, then back.  "She's fricking nuts.  You know that, right?"

"That's not your problem.  Now go do your job, and let me do mine.  Who's next in your little torture chamber?"

"Uh, Geist is next."  He threw a nervous glance to the cadet holding Zan seemingly effortlessly.

"Fine.  We already have the rifle.  We'll let you know when he's ready."  With that, she turned away, dismissing him from her mind.  "Alex, you're next."

~~

After Zan had calmed down a bit, Keedra leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"If I were you I would have done the same thing.  That human is a real...how do you say it...asshole."

Zan still looked a little pissed, but he could see a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Good luck, Alex!"  Fasir cheered at his roomate as he entered the simulation.'

~~

Alex glanced from Aurora to MoonStryker, (who made a rather rude gesture behind the lieutenant’s back) to the struggling woman in his arms.  He looked at Aurora doubtfully, but released Zan all the same.  She stumbled forward a step but didn’t glance back as she rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck, making the joints pop.

She was staring daggers at MoonStryker who quickly retreated into the control room.  Zan looked like she wanted to go pound the door down with her bare hands, but Aurora had her fixed in a stern stare and the other merely stalked over and plopped down in a chair next to Keedra, arms crossed over her chest, her anger was almost palpable.

Keedra for his part looked downright terrified.  For reasons known only to himself, the young Martian was quite fond of the volatile Captain, but was often quite nervous.  Though after her little show, he seemed afraid, and who wouldn’t be?  Zan was aggressive an unpredictable, even when she was in a good mood.

“Thanks,” Aurora said quietly as he passed.  He glanced at her but she was looking straight ahead unwilling to meet his gaze.  For reasons known only to herself she cared greatly for the captain.  And Alex realized so did he.  Though the reason why was unknown, even to himself.

“Save it.  I didn’t do it for you.” he mumbled.  “Don’t know why I stick my neck out for her...”

Alex spied the rifle lying on the ground and hooked his foot under the butt, kicking it into the air and snatching it out of the air.  He gave it a once over as he headed into the sim area, hoping Zan hadn’t busted it up too badly.   “Good luck, Alex!”  Keedra shouted.

The door closed behind him as he entered the room.  It was a large square,  mostly black, with a yellow grid, the squares about a meter on all sides.  The walls quickly disappeared, replaced by a swirling starscape.  The effect was disorientating, he felt as if his feet would slip away from him as his world spun.  The effect only got worse as gravity lost it’s hold and he began floating.

He glanced down at his body as the virtual armor was built around him, replacing his skin and clothing with steel plates.  He gave the jets a little try, firing short bursts that moved him little.  Ideally he would have like to have bit more time to experiment with propulsion and maneuvering, but this exercise was about marksmanship, so he’d have to make do.

“All right, Cadet,” MoonStryker said over the intercom.  “You’ve been watching your friends, so you know the drill.  Light ‘em up.”

Sure thing, Alex thought to himself as the drones appeared from holes hidden in the sim walls, shimmering to life as holograms surrounded them.  Each took on a uniform shape, with large torsos and thick limbs, the arms ending not with hands, but large guns instead.  “I don’t remember the others going up against these.”

“What’s the matter?” Moonstryker chided. “I read your file, I thought you liked a challenge?”

“So you sim up some crappy droids?  Give me a break.” Alex said, bringing the rifle up to his shoulder.  Droids were big and slow, there massive firepower hardly making up for there awkward design and shoddy maneuvering.  There were a favorite however of people who never learned to do battle themselves.

And these weren’t even real droids!  There were a total of eight droids, all with zero g flight and maneuvering rockets attached the to their dorsal sides, each droid riding on a tail of blue flame.  Ideally he would’ve liked a scope, once this was marksmanship after, all, btu he didn’t figure on needing one.  The droids were so big and thanks to the lack of a vacuum, noisy enough for a blind man to hit them.

He brought the rifle to bear and switched it over to burst fire, three rounds for each squeeze of the trigger.  More than he needed, but best to be prudent.  He lined up the first droid and fired.  It was still faraway yet, the droids themselves haven’t even bought they’re guns to bear, as Alex was out of range.  The three shots hit, melting the thick armor plating, the third punching directly into the droids innards.

It’s image wavered and it winked of existence.  No explosion, no blind flash of light or rolling ball of fire. Just gone.  He wasted little time bemoaning the lack of explosions and lined up the second bot, the death of the first threw the others into evasive maneuvers, making them harder to hit, but at the same made it harder for them to hit.

Alex took his time aiming, evasive maneuvers meant they had to get even closer to target him, so he took his time, and three bolts lanced out at the second droids, causing it to wink out, and the then quickly brought his gun to bear on the third which and been right behind the second.  Another three shot burst took it out of the equation as well.

Which left five out of the original eight remaining.  And the fist one came within range.  It opened fire, sending red liens racing through the void to meet him.  It was still too far away, and was easily dispatched as red fire filled the starscape around him.  Four left.

They had finally got into range and likewise filled the sky with red fires, lines of death(those these would only sting if they hit flesh) arcing around him.  Again Alex stood as immobile as statue, the only movement coming from his arms and trigger finger.  He had wonder just what range the droids were calibrated at has he calmly dispatched the fifth.

He had been moving right to left, as the droids advanced in a wave, and the ones in range were a good deal off to his left.  A flash a movement caught his eye and he brought his gun to bear on the eight droid, the furthest from him.  It assumed and odd position, spreading it’s legs and arms, and Alex’s widened as he saw the threat, immediately pumped the automaton full of fire.

But it was too late, the droid deployed it’s load of missiles. They were small, but deadly enough, and flew at him in a swarm, trailing smoke, as they curved and wove a pattern across the sea of stars.  He trained his rifle on the next to the last one, the closest and scored a hit, more luck than skill, it had been rather close.

Alex kicked his jets in, zipping away from the last droid and the swarm of missiles zeroing in on him. He headed straight up(relatively speaking), and frowned when the missiles changed course, like an explosive school of fish, tracking him.  “Wonderful,” he growled, kicking his speed up and looking for a way out of this mess.

He saw a large asteroid spinning slowly in the distance and sped toward it, hoping to use it as shield.  He thumbed fire to full auto and spun, putting the missile in front of but rained his rifle on the droid.  It was the objective after all.  At the speed he was traveling, the angle of the shot, and missiles speeding towards him, hitting the target  would be difficult, even for him.  But with full auto his chances improved greatly.

He raked the rifle back and forth, but kept it in a tight arc, he wanted most of the shots to go somewhere specific after all.  Whether or not the shots hit, he was unable to discern as he quickly spun, and kept his eyes on the asteroid, his goal.

It wasn’t as big as he’d hoped, but it was closer, a fair enough trade off.  He flew in low to the surface, the surface of ht rock close enough to touch, and close enough to send up a shower of sparks if he got too close.  He crested the pole of the asteroid and felt his blood gro w cold, as a virtual armory of droids filled the stars before him.

There numbers were to high to count, and as the battlefield filled with laser fire.  He immediately, braked and sped off in the opposite direction.  A solution tempered by the fact that he still had  missiles swarming after him.

Alex liked to think he could handle anything, but his mind was calling him a fool, this was too much to deal with.  He tried to prioritize, and the missiles were the biggest threat.  With enough to hide behind and theat the missiles were a lot faster than he was he had little options.  Hardly thinking he broguth the rifle up and went to work.

Laser rifles were a wondrous weapon, but had a serious drawback in their propensity for overloading.  A serious flaw, and one that could be manually induced if you knew the trick of it.  And Alex new the trick of it.

A few second later he dropped the rifles and kicked it beneath him, he hated to leave himself without a weapon, but he had severely limited options.  Has he sped away he was seriously hoping the rifle took out the missiles and was thinking on how about taking on an army of droids.  He could practically see MoonStryker’s smile.

Behind an very loud and very real explosion went off, Alex had felt he put enough distance between him and the weapon, btu he’d made a big mistake. Everything in the sim was a hologram, the missiles would’ve jostled him a bit.  But the rifle was real.  And he’d just set it to overload.  In a very confined space.

Before he realized his mistake the force of his mistake slammed him against a  wall, and his confused eyes saw the stars rippled like the night sky reflected by a lake.  The rest was lost to him as  his consciousness was stolen.

~~

The door to the sim chamber exploded outward, landing in a twisted mass at Zan’s feet.  She stared at it a moment, then calmly looked up.  "I like your style."  Through the haze of smoke and falling debris, they could just make out Alex propped against the far wall, either dazed or unconscious.  She picked her way across the mess to stand next to him and prodded him with the toe of one boot.  “Come on, Snowflake... Wakie, wakie..."

"Best move it, if you wanna keep it."

“Great Galactic Ghosts!”

“I say, this is a bit of a disaster.”

The others turned to see Rawlins and Stargazer enter, waving ineffectually at the smoky air.

"Then quit lazing around," Zan demanded, voice very loud in the sudden silence.

“What in the name of all that is holy happened in here?” Stargazer demanded, pinning Zan with an unnerving gaze.

She raised her hands defensively.  "Don't look at me. Not my fault... this time."

Aurora stormed out of the control room once again, MoonStryker on her heels.  "Zan, chill.  Alex, you ready to get up?"

Alex glared at Zan.  "...Go to hell."

She smirked in return.  "My pleasure. Want to take the Yukikaze and join me?"

"Zan...." Aurora said in a warning tone, then turned back to the fallen team member.  “Alex?

"Sure.  You didn't happen to see my dignity lying around anywhere?”  He pushed himself up slowly, still leaning against the wall and glaring daggers at Zan.

"Check for skidmarks," she suggested with a cheeky grin, then caught sight of Aurora’s expression.  "What?" she asked with an innocent look.

"Close your mouth,” Aurora told her,  “right now."

Zan complied for the whole 5 seconds it took her to notice MoonStryker sneaking toward the door. "Hey 'Instructor'... Nice sim," she called, smirking evilly

Aurora frowned.  "Keedra, invite our little friend to stay and help us out with the explanation."  The Martian moved into position to block the door, and even though he was only slightly taller than the training officer, his other-worldly appearance made him quite intimidating.

"Explain what?" Stargazer asked.

Aurora flicked him a glance, while Zan tried not to smirk, then fastened her attention back on MoonStryker.  "Oh, how about starting with why the safety protocols weren't enabled?  Alex's trick would have worked fine in space, but in an enclosed sim, the safeties should have disabled that stunt,” she explained, then winced as a ceiling panel fell.  "And I know you didn't do it for me, Alex, but damn, I didn't want to get out of doing the sim that badly."

"Now you tell me," he groaned.

MoonStryker held up his hands defensively.  "Hey don't look at me!  It's not my fault Herr Dumbass blew himself up."

"Hey Snowflake, you gotta teach me that trick,” Zan chortled.  “I know a few instructors that I'd like to shove one of those up their ass."

Aurora’s lips curved into a vicious smile.  "’Herr Dumbass,’ and I'll remember that, my friend, shouldn't have been ABLE to do that.  Let me repeat, and I'll use simple words.  Where. Were. The. Safety. Protocols?"

"The rifle was real!” MoonStryker insisted  "It wasn't subject to the sims safety parameters!"

Zan leaned back against the wall next to Alex and grinned, clearly enjoying the show.

"Any potential explosion of that sizeshould be automatically suppressed by the overrides!” Aurora insisted.  “Where were they?!"

"Sorry, but no explosions were programmed for today! Running too many parameters interferes with the sims processing, and how the hell was I supposed to guess he'd make a rifle explode?"

Zan started to whistle a funeral dirge.

"It's your program!  You should be aware of all the possibilities, and not hot-rodding like a moron!"

"I'm hot-rodding!?” MoonStryker demanded.  “Just what the hell do you call what he was doing!?"

"Reacting to the show YOU were putting on!  Those droids were NOT on the training schedule for today."

"I matched the sim to the skill!  And those missiles, had they hit, would've ended the sim! It's his damn fault!"

Zan studied the interior of the sim room. "It's quite a mess in there," she noted clinically.

"You think awfully high of me to believe I could best an army with a single rifle," Alex offered.

Aurora ignored both of them.  "Oh, I see.  So your idea of a successful endgame wasn't for the trainee to complete the mission, but to be killed?  And it's HIS fault for trying to survive?  Remind me not to go out on missions with you.  I prefer the people I can't trust to be in front of me, like a good enemy, and not targeting my back from behind."

"There were other ways out,” MoonStryker whined.  “He didn't have to blow himself up"

Zan rolled her eyes.  "And I'm told I have issues."

"I don't think that was his intention, you moron,” Aurora snapped.  “Though you might consider it."  She watched his mouth flap open and closed for a minute, then shook her head.  "That's it.  We're done here.  And until there's a new trainer officer, and a new sim, we're not going to be back."

"Does that mean I can skip out on the next one?" Zan asked.

Aurora nodded.  "You have a score, assuming bird-brain over there didn’t blow it up when he got his panties in a twist over Alex’s performance.  The rest of us will wait for a more opportune venue."

Alex levered himself away form the wall.  "If no one objects I think I'm gonna drag myself to a shower."

"Sick Bay first,” Aurora instructed.  “Just for the hell of it."

Zan sighed.  "Fine by me, still don't know why I had to take it in the first place...." She glanced at Alex, and a moment of silent communication seemed to pass between them.

"Sure, Why not?" He started slowly shambling towards the door, Zan a few steps behind.

"I'll make sure he gets there in one whole piece."

Aurora nodded, then waved a hand toward the door.  "Okay, troops.  That's today's entertainment.  Everyone out."

“Cadet Buchanan, wait a moment,” Rawlins ordered, exchanging looks with Stargazer.

Aurora waited until her team was out the door before turning.  “Yes, sir?” she asked, snapping to attention.

“You were pretty rough on Private MoonStriker, Cadet.”

“With all due respect, sir, he was pretty rough on my team.  There was no ‘safe’ way for Cadet Geist to survive the scenario he was presented with.  And the automatic explosion suppressors were conspicuous by their absence, sir.”  She shot the private a scathing look.  “Geist, Wolfstorm and Fasir are the toughest members of my team, sir.  If they have this much trouble with one of Private MoonStryker’s simulations, what will happen to Ito, Barter and myself when it’s our turn?”

Rawlins studied her for a moment, then nodded.  “All right, Cadet.  I’ll keep that in mind.  And I don’t imagine Commander Stargazer can spare Private MoonStryker much longer.  So if that’s all, Bert?” he asked, looking over to Stargazer, who shrugged.

“Sir, before I’m dismissed, I’d like to say something.”

“Cadet, I have no doubts about your ability to express yourself fully and clearly, but go ahead.”

“Sir, Alex, Cadet Geist, had a perfect score just before the debacle in the sim.  It’s not fair to him to have to re-do the simulation, just because the Private thought it would be amusing to make one of us lay down and die.”

Rawlins appeared to consider this.  “We’ll review the recordings and see if some kind of score can’t be salvaged.  I don’t know if I can promise perfect, but we can probably throw in some extra points for creativity and exceptional knowledge of equipment.  Now, if that’s all, Cadet Buchanan?”

“It is.  Thank you, sir.”

“Dismissed, then.  You, too, Private.  Pack your gear.  You’re heading back up tonight.”

The Cadet and Private left, both still bristling, and Rawlins turned to Stargazer.  “Well?”

“She didn’t report the brawl.  I expected to hear at least something about it,” Stargazer groused.

“You heard what she said.  Kept her word, and as long as he keeps his mouth shut, so will she.  So?”

Stargazer nodded.  “They’ll do.  Get 'em polished and send 'em up”

~~

Between the horribly difficult sim, a jerk for an instructor, and an explosion, Cadet Fasir had enough excitement for the day.  After having dinner he headed back to his dorm to meditate.  He was brought back to the concious world once he was aware that his roomate had returned.  Keedra watched in silence as Alex flopped on the couch.  He didn't look like he had any serious injuries, but it seemed he had been in sick bay for quite a while.

"Uh, hello, Alex.  How are you feeling?"

"Ok.  Thanks for asking."

Keedra then narrowed his eyes in concern.  Alex leaned forward with a serious expression.

"Don't worry about me.  I'm fine...really."

Alex then got up and headed for his room, giving Keedra a quick pat on the shoulder.  That's about as far as he would go to reassure the concerned Martian that he was all right.  In all the confusion Fasir forgot to ask about his score.  He didn't really care at the moment.  He was just glad that his team mates were all right.  He knew that once they got out in the field scores wouldn't matter when their lives were on the line.  He hadn't realized it before, but in the short months he was in the Academy he had become attached to his team mates.  He would protect them at all costs...and he hoped they would do the same for him.  Keedra snapped out of his deep thoughts when he heard his rommate speak once again.

"Hey Fasir, if anybody comes by asking for me...tell them I'm not in the mood for visitors...that includes you."

The last thing the Martian heard was a door quietly shutting behind the human.  In spite of his cold remark Keedra smiled.  He realized he was going to have to get accustomed to the way these human's behaved...and he was up for the challenge.

~End~

 


End file.
